


A More Constructive Conversation

by helens78



Category: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Fix-It, M/M, Making Up, Possible Reconciliation, Reconciliation, Unresolved Romantic Tension, plane scene, still in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 19:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1952496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helens78/pseuds/helens78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone has to bend in order to get communication started again.  Even if Erik were made of steel, he of all people knows that steel can bend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A More Constructive Conversation

It's a long while after Charles heads up to the cockpit before Erik asks Logan a question.

"Who gave in?"

Logan lifts an eyebrow. "You talkin' to me?"

Erik gestures around the plane. The mess from earlier has been cleaned; in a way, it was pleasant to remember what it's like to _own_ things, to have enough possessions that tidying up is necessary.

"You're the one back here."

"I could probably squeeze into the cockpit if you pissed me off enough."

Erik takes the seat across from him. "You don't like me."

"You catch on quick."

"You've never liked me. But you told Charles to come for me. Why?"

Logan leans back against his seat, sighs; eventually, he runs a hand over that ridiculous hair of his. "It wasn't like that exactly," he says.

"What, exactly, was it like?"

"In the future--" and Erik still hasn't completely decided to believe in this man's version of the future, it's too much like the stuff of all his nightmares-- "you told me that I'd need you both. You and Charles. Together. And since Chuck didn't disagree with you on it, I figured he agreed."

_You and Charles. Together._ As if that isn't what Erik's hoped for every day of the past ten years... still. A thousand broken shards of expensive china (oh, yes, Charles Xavier would own a private jet stocked with expensive china, liable to shatter the moment the plane tilted) reminded Erik that they were as far apart now as they were on that beach ten years ago. So far there seems little hope of reconciliation.

"The two of us were together. In the future," Erik repeats.

Logan snorts. "The way you mean-- yeah."

"The way I mean."

"You don't have to pussyfoot around it. You guys hold hands, for Christ's sake; you kiss when you get back from missions. _Together_ together. The way you mean."

"Who gave in?"

"You're still gonna have to walk me through that question, bub," Logan says. "Who gave in on _what_?"

Erik folds his hands together. He spent ten years cultivating patience. It's remarkable how quickly the men on this airplane are causing him to tap into his reserves. "Who came to whom for reconciliation?"

"You came to us," Logan says. "I wasn't in on the details. And I voted against taking you in, by the way."

"I'm shocked."

"But Chuck wanted you. So we took you. And you haven't fucked us over yet. Not in the future, at least." Logan leans in, flexing his hands, his forearms tense as though he's about to unsheath those long claws of his. "We'll see what happens in the present."

"Won't we." Erik's done with this conversation. He comes to his feet and heads for the cockpit, lingering at the boundary between passenger section and flight crew.

Charles is still seated to Hank's right, still staring straight ahead. It's not as if there's anything to be seen up here; the occasional cloudbank beneath them, but otherwise it's clear sky for as far as the eye can see. Well, as far as Erik's unenhanced vision can see, or Charles's. Hank may have a better view, but with his need for glasses, perhaps sight isn't one of the senses he has that's enhanced. Or maybe it's only in his true form that his sight is above the human norm. It still puzzles Erik, why Hank is so uncomfortable with who he truly is. Given Charles's appearance, the two of them don't get out much. It seems a tremendous waste to be secluded and to spend all that time _human_.

"What do you _want_ , Erik?" Charles asks.

"A more constructive conversation." _You came to us._ "Will you join me?"

"Do we really have anything to talk about?" Charles asks, but his voice is weary. "Surely we've covered it." He turns back and looks past Erik, practically through him, to the passenger section of the plane. "Tell me you didn't clean up just so you could wreck my plane again."

"Charles." Charles hasn't risen from his seat, and with his head at this height, it's easy for him to avoid eye contact. Erik crouches down, puts them eye-to-eye. Charles flinches, looks away... looks back. His gaze is skittish, as if he can't bear to look at Erik and can't bear not to look at him. It's nothing like what Erik feels when he looks at Charles, like he needs to drink in the sight of him. Even so changed, the hair, the beard, he's still Charles Xavier. Still the most unique soul Erik's ever known. Still the only person who filled Erik's fantasies, two hundred feet underground.

Still so many things, but a telepath no longer. It amazes Erik how much he misses that.

"What do you want, Erik?" Charles asks again, at a whisper this time.

"We've had the worst of it out," Erik murmurs. "Come back. We'll try for something more productive."

Charles's eyes are shining when they meet Erik's the next time. He looks away again immediately, nodding, and he climbs out of the chair and follows Erik back to the passenger section. Erik takes a seat on the couch, but Charles goes to Logan, putting a hand on Logan's shoulder.

"Go and spend some time with Hank," Charles says.

"You sure?"

"No." Charles nearly laughs, but it's more a huff of breath that contains the memory of what laughter used to be like. "But I know where to find the both of you, if I should happen to need you."

Logan goes, and Charles takes his chair, sitting down across from Erik. "Well?"

_You came to us,_ Erik remembers. It's a little easier, knowing that he's already capitulated, that all this has happened already.

"I never should have left you," he tells Charles, and he watches Charles's eyes widen. No fantasy. No dream. This is what it looks like when he finally says those words to the man he still loves. "I'm sorry. For everything. For Cuba. For Raven. For every day I stayed away from you."

Voice strained, Charles says, "I'm given to understand that for the last nine years or so, you didn't have much say in the matter."

"Then I'm sorry for the year when I did. When we've done what's necessary to stop Bolivar Trask, I want..." He hesitates... but Charles did ask. He asked twice. He might genuinely want to know, even need to hear it. "I want to keep fighting for our kind. At your side. The way we always should have been."

"I'm still not certain we agree on the means," Charles says. He taps his fingertips on the table in front of him, the one slightly pocked now with three marks from Logan's claws. "And from what we know about the future, maybe your way was the right one all along."

"Maybe my way is the one that gives us Logan's future. Or maybe it's yours, Charles. But maybe what saves mutantkind is the one thing we didn't have in that future."

Charles manages to pry his eyes up from the table, looking at Erik again. "Which is?"

It's too early for this, but Erik's burning with the need to touch again. Even Charles's fist against his jaw was something. This might get him more of the same, but it's been ten years, ten years alone, ten years missing Charles above everyone else. _Charles._

He puts his hand over Charles's and says, "Each other."

And he waits for Charles to shake him off, or pull him closer, deciding which road their future's going to take.


End file.
